Waqar had not seen the drama unfold in Hobart, but was hardly surprised when told of the accusations being hurled by the Sri Lankans at Australian quick Peter Siddle.
The former Pakistan paceman was banned and fined 50 per cent of his match fee for lifting the seam off the ball during a one-dayer against Sri Lanka in 2000.
Waqar went one step further and sensationally claimed he was glad ball-tampering claims had been directed towards a team not from the subcontinent.
"To be really honest, I'm not surprised," Waqar said.
"Tampering with the ball has been part of cricket for the last 100 years, maybe more.
"If people want to close their eyes and say, 'Oh, it's not happening and cricket is very clean', you're kidding me, that's rubbish.
"There's some sort of tampering going on. If you go back to the 1960s and 1970s, you'd see players putting Vasoline on the ball, people eating mints and putting their saliva on the ball, or picking at the seam. There is heaps going on.
"All I'm saying, when this happened during our time, I don't know if it was to do with we coming from the sub-continent and we were just too good and people didn't like that. Now this has come. It doesn't really surprise me.
"If you come to the subcontinent and the pitches they play (on), you still see people throwing the ball around on the ground, trying to scuff it up as soon as possible. The England team do it."
Waqar said he recently completed a commentary role in Abu Dhabi where Australia played and "it was happening then".
Waqar took 373 wickets in 87 Tests for Pakistan and formed one of the great pace attacks with left-armer Wasim Akram.
The 41-year-old who now lives in Sydney said he was glad ball tampering had not involved a team on the subcontinent.
"Sometimes they pick on certain teams. It's good that it's happened in another part of the world other than the subcontinent," Waqar said.
Waqar said different players used different ways to tamper with the ball. He added who the third umpire was in Hobart would "play a big role" in any possible punishment handed down.
Ball-tampering still rife: Waqar
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All I'm saying, when this happened during our time, I don't know if it was to do with we coming from the sub-continent and we were just too good and people didn't like that. Now this has come. It doesn't really surprise me.